Thankful Thursdays 11/28/2013 Thanksgiving Edition

In honor of the holiday, I've decided to compile a list of 28 things that I'm thankful (get it because today's the 28th? Cheesy? Yes. Will it stop me? No.). Here we go!

1. My Merciful Heavenly Father

2. A family that makes me laugh.

3. A sense of humor that allows me to laugh at myself.

4. Dear friends that put up with my girly woes.

5. Reconnecting with old friends

6. Getting better acquainted with a sweet group of youth group girls.

7. My bestie. I talk a lot about this girl, but I'm just so blessed to call her my best friend.

8. Parents that never stop worrying about me even though I'm an adult (on the outside only, inside I'm still 12.)

9. Brothers that I count as two of my dearest friends.

10. White chocolate lattes (it's my drink of choice, just in case anyone ever wants to bring me one...)

11. Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade every year with my Mama.

12. My salvation

13. Godly 2nd parents (Merla and Steve, I'm looking at you!)

14. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

15. Papa's Barbecued turkey. Seriously, if you've never tried this, you must!

16. Foggy mornings, especially when you don't have to go anywhere, and can stay curled up on your couch with a mug of coffee.

17. My pastor and his lovely wife

18. Doctor Who/Firefly/Buffy/Once/Sherlock marathons

19. Finally being grown up enough not to care about letting my nerd flag fly.

20. Growing closer with extended family members because of the interwebs. I don't care what you say, sometimes the internet is a good thing especially when you live so far apart.

21. Coffee, in general...

22. Corny Christmas movies. I'm a complete sucker for them. Don't judge.

23. My baby brother coming home for Christmas break.

24. My infuriating, irritating, amusing, dopey cat, Malcolm.

25. My church family

26. Fangirling on Tumblr with virtual strangers. I know it sounds weird, but I don't have that many people in real life besides my bestie and brothers to talk about this stuff with, and then I'm sure they get tired of hearing about it all the time. So to spare my real life peeps some of the agony, I have my fellow Tumblr-ites.

27. The Lord giving me the strength to get a bit healthier. I could not do it on my own.

28. My readers. It shocks and blesses my socks off that anyone would want to read my ramblings.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Manda

Thankful Thursdays 11/07/2013

Music: (Trying my darndest to suppress the urge 
           to listen to Christmas music.)



Happy November, all! 'Tis the season for planning turkey dinners, trying to avoid looking at Christmas-y merchandise until after Thanksgiving (and usually failing spectacularly), finishing off leftover Halloween candy, and trying (and also failing spectacularly) to get some early Christmas shopping done...

1. An amazing answer to an unspoken prayer.

2. Two splendid hours spent with 8 of the sweetest, sassiest, funniest young ladies making chocolate chip cookies and laughing our heads off. I was completely blessed that these girls would want to spend their Saturday morning with me. Hopefully, I was able to bless them a bit too. "I'm Johnny Appleseed!"

3. My bestie Amber, who always listens to me when I'm verbalizing my over-thinking...which happens a lot.

4. A coffee date with a friend and drooling over her honeymoon tales. (She went to Ireland, Wales, and England, guys. Seriously, that is my DREAM trip.)

5. Snow. Yes, I know "insert eye roll here". No, I don't like driving on slick, slushy roads, but it does make the great outdoors look so pretty.

6. Going a bit bonkers downloading new music from Noisetrade.

7. Meeting another fitness goal (down 30 pounds, yay!!)

8. Peppermint white mocha's back at my favorite coffee shop! I drank two last weekend (no judging). Hurrah, for holiday beverages!

9. My dear friend, Nikki, who supported me the whole way when I told her that I wanted to make myself up as coffee themed superhero for my announcement about our ladies retreat in front of the entire church. Girl didn't even bat an eye. Just said "That's awesome! What can I do to help." For that, I made her my sidekick.

10. Speaking of new music, I'm currently in love with the hip hop group Beautiful Eulogy. I'll leave you today with the remix they did with Josh Garrels on his song "Anchor". Soooo good!

Thankful Thursdays 10/31/2013

Artie Shaw - Nightmare
Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You
Frank Sinatra - Witchcraft
Michael Jackson - Thriller

Well lovelies, it's Halloween, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and next week is Christmas. I kid, but not really. Seriously, once we hit Halloween, it's all down hill from here. Boom. The HOLIDAYS are upon us. Any who so Halloween...my crazy plans are to meet up with Linus and see if the Great Pumpkin shows up this year. I'll be following that wild ride with a possible trip to Halloweentown, or maybe a hot date with Sir Netflix. Guuurrlll, this party NEVAH stops!! Now for thankful time.

1. Starting a new workout challenge that my friend Chelsey made for me!! She designed this one to fit in with my love of baking. I'm excited, though the cookie cutters (squat type exercise) may kill me...

2. A new Five Iron Frenzy album comes out next month! Squeeeeeee!!! It's been 10 YEARS since their last one, and I'm dying to listen to the new one...if only I didn't have to wait until Nov. 26... it will be worth it, though.

3. The book of Proverbs. Just started re-reading this Book, and wowza, is it applicable to what is happening in our world today.

4. Planning for a ladies retreat.

5. A bit of karaoke and dancing in Shopko with two of my dearest friends.

6. Movie nights with my bestie and her family.

7. Allowing myself to eat a s'more... or two.

8. Lunch with my Grandma.

9. New cousins. Hi, Kyle and Makenzy!

10. Shuffling and crunching through a pile of leaves. Nothing will bring you back to being a kid faster than that.

For a special treat (Get it? Cuz it's Halloween? Trick or Treat? Pssshhttt, never mind.) I'll leave you with this pic of the Middle Brother and I back in our Candy Getting days.

Thankful Thursday 10/17/2013

1. "Not A Fan" by Kyle Idleman. This book challenges the way we view a relationship with Christ. How we must move from being simply a "fan" of Jesus and commit to being a follower of Him. I highly recommend it.

2. A dinner date with the middle brother. We ate. We laughed. We discussed. We watched music videos. We perused nerdy art. A perfect evening.

3. The cozy smell of wood smoke drifting by on an autumn stroll.

4. Chats with the roomie over mugs of tea.

5. Working on a new project.

6. Text conversations with the youngest brother as we nerd out over a new favorite movie.

(Nathan Fillion as Dogberry is hilarious.)

7. Parking on a golden carpet... I love fall because it makes even the most mundane little parking spot look like something out of Fairy Tale Land.

8. The first spark of excitement for the upcoming holiday season.

9. The thrill of one of my Tumblr posts being reblogged, and the confirmation that I'm not the only nerd girl out there...

10. These pictures from my first color run.

Thankful Thursdays 10/03/2013

1. Psalm 119

2. Crisp, chilly mornings that make me snuggle a bit deeper into my sweater.

3. New episodes of my favorite shows (Once, how I've missed you!) and finding new shows (Sleepy Hollow, I'm looking at you.)

(Tom Mison as Ichabod has nothing to do with it...yeah, we'll go with that...)

4. Walking my first color run on Sunday. I'll let you all know how it went next week.

5. Pumpkin-palooza! That squash is everywhere and in everything right now, and I love it.

6. Getting my seasonal chai fix.

7. Silly cards from my bestie.

8. Even though they follow over a 1,000 people on Instagram, being followed back by Five Iron Frenzy totally made me do "the nerdy fan girl fan hand flail and hop". What?! You've never listened to FIF?! For shame! They're one of my top 5 bands! Here take a listen:

(They satisfy my ska loving heart)

9. The anticipation that the leaves will soon (any day, now!) put on their fall wardrobe.

(Yay!)

10. All the support and love that I received from my last blog post. You guys are amazing, not only for cheering me on in my pursuit to get healthier, but also for taking the time to read my humble little blog. My Sassy 'Bots are the BEST. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Manda

Getting Some Weight Off My Chest (and other places)

I've never been the skinny girl. Even when I was "normal sized" way back in kindergarten, I still wasn't the one that people said "Look at you! You're just an itty bitty bit of a thing!" In about fourth grade, I went from wearing girls sizes straight into grown womens. Totally skipped the juniors section, but then Pamida didn't really have much of juniors section to pick from, and we couldn't afford any of the mall's stores. From there I gradually grew in size. Out not so much up. (I've taken Miss I'm a Little Teapot's lyrics to heart. Girl knows all about being short and stout. Preach.) My weight issue stems from several factors. I come from very sturdy Scandinavian/German/British stock. I love to bake, and to eat what I bake. Physical activity doesn't hold much allure for me. It doesn't help that I'm also pretty uncoordinated and think most sporting events are boring. I also lack any kind of competitiveness when it comes to playing sports or games. I much prefer to spend my time reading, drinking coffee, watching a favorite show, baking, or fan girling online. Combine all this and you get me.

Through the years, I've made half hearted attempts (really not even "half" hearted, more like quarter hearted) to get healthier and try to lose weight, but they lasted maybe a week or two before I lost any motivation and returned to my old friends Chocolate and Couch. Why? Because it's easier to be lazy. Easier to do what feels comfortable. Easier not to try. Didn't I want to be healthy? Didn't I want to feel better? Have more energy? Look better? Of course! Not be made fun of, looked down upon, or treated differently then anyone else? Because even though the Lord has protected me from a lot of the pain and ridicule that overweight people go through, I've still gotten some. I've had teens moo at me. I've overheard a little girl say to her mom while pointing at me "Mommy, why is that lady so fat?" I've been asked if I'm pregnant. I've had to ask for seat belt extenders on an airplane because the seat belts were too small. I'm all too familiar with the pain that is shopping in the plus size department which is typically a third of the size of regular women's sizes, and three quarters of the clothing in that department looks like something straight from your grandmother's closet. Hoorah. Again, of course, I don't like this, but I could never motivate myself to do any more than just imagine what it would be like to be healthier.

This lovely number is what can be found in many plus size departments...Fine for grandmothers, not so much for this 30 something.

All of this changed this year. My dear friend (and my brother Nick's girlfriend) Chelsey and I were talking, and I mentioned to her that I would like to walk a 5K sometime. Chelsey, who's an avid runner, said I should do the Summit Classic. I said that that would be fun, but didn't think too much more about it. Chelsey, on the other had did. She thought a lot more about it. She's a planner, folks.  Well much to my surprise, one day while she was over for dinner, she presented me with the 13 week Coffee Bean Workout Challenge to get me ready for the 5K. At first, the Lazy part of me was like "Meh, I don't knooooww." Then something in me was all "No. Why not try? It would good to get a little more active!" So before I could think anymore about it, I signed on the dotted line and committed my self to the Challenge, and guess what? I finished the Challenge. I walked the 5K. I survived, and even better something within me was sparked to life. It was like, hey if I can workout for 13 weeks and feel so much better, why can't I keep doing it? And for the most part, I have, and wonder of all wonders I've lost weight!!! What?! For the first time in my life, I have lost weight. To date I've lost almost 24 pounds. It's crazy! Gaaahh!! I still can't believe. Everytime I get on the scale and see that I've lost even half a pound I do a little dance. (No, you may not have a demo of said dance. That's for me and the scale.) So what made this attempt much more successful then others? I think the biggest reason is that it all started with Chelsey. All my previous attempts are something that I tried on my own. This time I had someone who cared about me, wanted to see me succeed in getting healthier, put a lot of time into making a game plan for me, and encouraged me all the way. That's what made the biggest difference for me. That's what I needed.

When I started out the Challenge I told myself that if by some chance I managed to lose 20 pounds, I could by myself a present. Even better a GEEKY present. Even better yet, a DOCTOR WHO present. Well, as I said above I reached that goal, and I am now the proud owner of these gorgeous earrings!

Look at them! Bask in their beautiful sheen!! 

 They're so pretty!!

Oh, I am a very happy nerd girl!

Now that I've reached the 20+ pound mark, I know that I can reach the 40 pound mark. (Yes, I've bribed myself with the promise of another geeky gift to myself when I reach that goal.) I'm realistic about the fact that it's going to hard. Winter's coming. The short days and snowy, icy weather make it much harder to get outside. My hermit tendencies become even more prevalent in the winter. It's still not easy to eat healthy. Chocolate cupcakes, french fries, and bacon all still sound a-mazing. I'm going to keep working at it, though because I've got the Lord, family and friends cheering me on, and now I have proof that I can do this. 

Thanks for reading!

Manda

Thankful Thursdays 09/05/2013

September is here, folks! Yay for fall!! I'm so ready for it. The sweaters, the boots, the scarves (I have a serious scarf fetish...), the pumpkins, the fall foliage, the crisp mornings, the hazy evenings, and the baking...oh, the baking! I love it so much that I've already decorated the apartment for it ( no judgey judging, mmm-kay?), and yes, I made my roomie roll her eyes and laugh at me over this. She still loves me, though. ;)
Okay, enough of this fallishness (Get it?! Fallishness instead of foolishness? Oh, the wittiness abounds!). Let's get back on track.

1. Morning rain showers. I know some with disagree with me, but I adore rainstorms. I love cloudy, cool days waaaay more then hot, sunshine-y ones. Why? Because they give a girl an excuse to curl up on the couch with a book, a cup of coffee, or an old musical. Sigh, that's my idea of the perfect way to while away a few hours...

2. Classic car shows. I know. I know. Me? A fan of car shows? What?! I do really enjoy them. Why? Well, my Dad is an upholsterer, and he worked on a number of classic cars while we were growing up. So naturally, I developed an appreciation for them. Also, I'm somewhat of a history nerd, and I especially love the 1920's-1970's. This 50+ years span is where most classic cars fall into so there you go. Plus, they're so pretty, what with the vibrant colors of paint and shiny chrome finishes (What. I'm a girl. Of course, I'm going to say a car is pretty.)!

3. Re-reading a favorite series of books, and still loving them as much as I did the first read through.

Happy Thursday, all! Thanks for stopping by.